- Professor David Gauntlett, University of Westminster
- Proefssor Jeanette Steemers, University of Westminster
- Research Lizzie Jackson, University of Westminster
New research, funded as part of the AHRC and BBC pilot Knowledge Exchange Programme, has enabled academics from the University of Westminster to show that online worlds developed specifically for children can give them much-needed social and creative skills. In addition this research has had a real impact on the development of BBC strategy in this area.
The team at Westminster, working with the BBC, studies the development of the BBC's new virtual world for children, 'Adventure Rock'. They found that the children between seven and eleven years old improved their computer literacy skills, learnt to create mental maps by exploring their new worlds, and rehearsed real-world responsibilities - such as looking after characters and objects in the game.
Although children are unable to chat with other online players in 'Adventure Rock', the researchers found that children wanted to have more opportunties to use virtual worlds as a tool for self-expression and to communicate with friends.
The research was jointly funded by the AHRC and by the BBC wi
th a fifty/fifty investment of £75,000 in total. The researchers undertook interviews with 90 children aged between seven and eleven years old in workshops across the UK, giving them six weeks to explore 'Adventure Rocks' before asking them what they liked and didn't like about the world.
Three hundred and thirty academics and media figures attended the 'Children in Virtual Worlds' conference at the University of Westminster on May 22nd where the findings were presented.
At the conference Professors David Gauntlett and Jeanette Steemers and researcher Lizzie Jackson explained how their work has shown that children wanted their virtual worlds to offer them the opportunity to interact with others, to be creative, to share media made by other children, and for worlds to be a place away from adult rules. They also wanted online 'homes' - a hotel, house or town - and shops in which they could trade with other users.
The researchers identified eight types of player. These categories include 'Collector-Consumers', who wanted to accumulate objects, and wanted to give them as gifts to others; 'Life-system Builders', who were interested in creating and adding to new environmets; and 'Self Stampers', children who wanted to make their mark on the world by personalising the character's appearance and environment.
Professor Gauntlett said: "Our research looked at whether these virtual worlds offer children experiences that they want, and that are stimulating, and encourage useful skills.
"The BBC places great emphasis on online safety, and offers children a protected space to begin exploring online environments , and creativity. These are becoming more and more a part of modern life, and educating children to use online networks intelligently and safely is a good thing for their development."
The AHRC and BBC Future Media and Technology are working together to develop a long term collaborative strategic partnership underpinned by AHRC's strategy to enable collaborative research and development in the arts and humanities. the aim of this ongoing partnership is to bring together the arts and humanities research community with BBC Future Media and Technology staff to enable co-funded knowledge exchange and collaborative research and develoment.
The AHRC/BBC pilot Knowledge Exhange Programme was developed as a way to support individual or teams of arts and humanities researchers and BBC Furture Media and Technology staff to work together on well defined collaborative research and knowledge exchange programme projects. The intention has been that the benefits from the outcomes and outputs of these projects will be of equal signigicance to both partners. Eight research projects are currently being undertaken across the UK and outcomes for all projects are expected by the end of 2008.
The project blog for the AHRC/BBC Knowledge Exchange Programme can now be found live at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/knowledgeexchange